What if we ditched electricity and just played?

[Christophe_E]

Your point is spot on Philippe, obviously an electric guitar isn’t a classical or folk guitar any more than a synth is a piano. They’re related instruments but different ones.

Even though the nature of the didge pushes us to use it raw, as is, amplified playing with effects can be really rich and inspiring, just like you do very well with 2Biome. You just have to accept that these are either 2 different instruments, or at least two very different playing styles.

After all, what do beatbox playing and traditional rhythm have in common, even acoustically?
Here we should see the great versatility of our instrument and the possibilities it offers everyone.

[Chris]

I’d like to share with you my « modest experiences » performing on stage as a professional singer, which I’m no longer, and thank goodness for that…

My biggest struggles… « the sound »… or rather the electricity…

A very long time ago, I found myself on stage one day simply because I loved singing while accompanying myself on guitar.

My first experience with a microphone? …Painful! …To be honest, I had no idea what was happening to me… Where had my voice gone, the sound of my guitar? What I was hearing wasn’t the voice I knew… Same thing for my guitar…

When I set out to write, I become aware of how complex the subject is. Not intellectually but physically.

Imagine looking at yourself in a mirror and the image you perceive isn’t yours…! That’s the effect I felt. Perhaps when electricity arrived, that’s what people experienced when they first saw themselves in a mirror at night.

For me then, a lot of suffering during my many musical performances. On top of having to overcome monstrous stage fright, the ordeal of enduring « crappy sound » and being condemned to share 1 hour 30 minutes with a soulless stranger.

Certainly nothing flattering. Especially very draining emotionally. So many hours of work for such a poor result…

I began to understand that the experience of sound, including that with « electricity », is an intimate matter, not just a matter of ears, of audio feedback loops, but the story of the entire body.

As a singer, understanding and learning what sound is, the technology of sound, should be part of every musician’s curriculum.

Singing, accompanying yourself on guitar… okay!.. unfortunately, if you don’t have the luck of having a real sound pro by your side, managing your mixing board yourself is a whole other ball game… which was my case…

…And I neither had the time nor the intellectual capacity to embark on that adventure.

At every musical performance, I would cross my fingers, hoping that the person operating the sound would have enough sensitivity to understand me, understand my voice, my playing, the way a makeup artist understands the person she’s making up in order to add that little touch of light that will enhance the artist’s temperament, personality.

I ended up equipping myself with some modest gear for a bit of independence. From that moment on, I started crossing my fingers again so that fate would protect me from the bad tricks of technology, of electricity, at the moment of starting the concert, the kind of « Shit, it can’t be… no sound! »

A little aside… You get it, I was navigating the land of solitary penniless musicians. A choice after getting fed up with musicians hungry for the top spot on stage.

I admit it, playing with other musicians is a delight but acoustically speaking for me given my musical choices.

Isn’t sound a matter of psychology, of philosophy?

These experiences taught me to stop losing myself, above all to stop searching for my voice in places that « disguised » me, even transformed me, stealing part of me, that precious treasure my voice. My voice without a microphone, the voice that shone in particular places because of natural acoustics and in which I felt in complete harmony with ??? …Having no religion I would say in harmony with the Mystery of the Universe… a state of grace… magical, a state where the Ego has no place.

In my early years on stage, I was always looking for a sound for my voice that would flatter that Ego. The more I searched, the more I moved away from my true nature, my source. Realizing I was on the wrong path, to the point of losing my voice, I had to learn to stop trying to appear but simply to Be.

I learned that whatever the context, the sound quality on stage, I can now sing into a microphone without searching for the « original » sound of my voice, but to « be my voice ».

I don’t know if it’s the same for instrumentalists. It’s true that for the voice, (I’ve often written it), « the voice is the mirror of the soul », losing my voice, I was losing my soul. That’s where technology led me.

No, it’s not technology’s fault which, I’ll admit, has its magical sides including that of enhancing creativity, just as the presence of other musicians on stage does, a good feedback with the audience.

Just a matter of nature, of temperament, which doesn’t prevent me from appreciating all styles of music with or without « electricity ».

Thank you Karl for starting this discussion.

[Elisabeth_Blanc]

Thanks for this beautiful text Chris and for sharing this intimate experience with your voice.

[Christophe_E]

Thanks for that great comment Chris. Since the didge is an extension of our voice and our body, I think your observations are spot on.

[Chris]

Thanks Christophe for your feedback

Yes you’re right about the comparison with the didge…

As a stickler for details, I’d say that breath is the extension of our body. It can work without vocals so this applies to all wind instruments.
No vocals if the vocal cords aren’t put into action. For the didge, it will be the lips that have the vibratory function like the reed for the clarinet, etc. If you’re voiceless you can still keep breathing so you have breath to set your lips vibrating except you’ll need to be careful not to put defective vocal cords to work.

Musical instruments, unless you’re playing outdoors with changes in temperature or humidity that will alter the instrument’s tuning so its pitch, don’t deform.

With a nasty case of nerves, it’s us who suffer some unfortunate disturbances hence the point of knowing your stuff well… Even if the legs are shaking, the hands that get clammy and trembling (not cool for guitar) generally the breath is there…

I wanted to add that I only spoke about stage experience which doesn’t necessarily interest everyone. Technology has opened us up to an unknown and fascinating universe in terms of creativity.

Yes hearing yourself differently generates creativity, boosts it well that’s what we often believe at first because nothing comes easy. I’d say that for me, composing with it, it’s learning to play another instrument.

I don’t know if in terms of writing, such tools exist, software like there is for drawing, painting, animation… to make completely new ideas spring from our brain…

In any case, once you taste it you become hooked pretty quick… but if our mind (like mine stuck in the stone age) feels quickly overwhelmed, then we’ll always use the « same button » and we’ll go round in circles fast… I’m always happy to work my instruments without electricity… it’s so simple… never any hassles with connections, wiring, problems often so hard to solve when you’re up in the clouds… like me…